“Someone gets shot an average of about once per hour. That was the sobering reality in Chicago this weekend, when at least 58 people were shot.” Chicago’s “latest rash of violence happened despite an additional 600 officers on the streets.”

Chicago experienced a “weekend from hell, when outbreaks of gunfire killed 12 people and injured at least 62″ Then, “the carnage” continued on Monday. But “gun violence in Chicago is random the way destructive wind gusts are random. You can brace yourself but still not anticipate the location or severity of a blast. Monday easily could have been the quiet after the storm.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t. “At least 10 people were shot in eight incidents Monday on the South and West sides.”

“With due respect to the faith and beliefs of every person, especially the grieving residents of Sutherland Springs, the rote statements of politicians were almost blasphemous in their repetition and meaninglessness. From Japan, President Trump’s ‘thoughts and prayers’ riff was so stale and scripted that it conveyed all the sincerity of a robocall offering an extended warranty on a kitchen appliance. The irony no doubt escaped the president that he was speaking to tortured souls in small-town Texas from a nation with strict and sensible gun laws. A nation where gun violence is almost unheard of.”

After the police shooting of a black man, violence erupted in Milwaukee, “one of the nation’s most segregated” metropolitan areas where black male unemployment hovers around 50%. “While there is no excuse for what happened, there is a reason. Adults and teens exploded with anger and frustration because something is fundamentally wrong; something that has been building for decades.

“It is now clear that Republicans will be led into the presidential election by a candidate who said he would kill the families of terrorists, has encouraged violence by his supporters, has a weakness for wild conspiracy theories and subscribes to a set of protectionist and economically illiterate policies that are by turns fantastical and self-harming.” Somehow, Donald Trump now has a chance to win the presidency. “The result could be disastrous for the Republican Party and, more important, for America.”

A win by Donald Trump “is an appalling prospect. The things Mr Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped.”

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland. The arrangement now looks to be in peril. “Ending the power-sharing provincial government in Northern Ireland will serve no good purpose, either for Protestant unionists or Catholic nationalists. The only ones who gain are the dark forces on both sides who remain consumed by sectarian hatred and violence.”

For today’s dictator, “soaring approval ratings are a more cost-effective path to dominance than terror.” While a few violent dictators still remain, there has been a sea change in methods. “A new brand of authoritarian government has evolved that is better adapted to an era of global media, economic interdependence and information technology.” So-called ‘soft’ dictators like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Peru’s Alberto Fujimori and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad “concentrate power, stifling opposition and eliminating checks and balances, while using hardly any violence.”

“The killings of Mr Goto and Mr Yukawa show that no nation — however pacifist its culture — is immune from the mindless violence of Islamist militants. Japan’s response at this moment must be one rooted in international engagement, not renewed isolation.”